Si Yanbei was powerful and influential, yet frail and chronically ill. He was the unattainable beauty everyone in their circle eagerly pursued.
He had no interest in romance. All he wanted was to see his younger brother married before he died, and to raise him into a capable successor.
But he discovered that his brother, Si Min, didn't love his fiance, even though the fiance wouldn't let go and often threatened to hurt himself.
He saw with his own eyes the boy's many moments of humble pleading.
The boy burned himself while making soup and begged his brother to have a sip, only for Si Min to slap the bowl away.
The boy knelt in the rain, his back bent like a blade, and let Si Min curse him.
On a snowy night, he stood bare-chested as a whip tore open his skin, lowering his head and not making a sound.
Si Yanbei's heart softened.
With death close at hand, he reached out to help the boy out of kindness.
Gu Xingnan lived inside a book. His family had fallen into ruin, yet even when the fiance he loved humiliated him, he remained devoted to her.
He awakened to his own existence, but could not break free of the plot's shackles.
His attempts to defy fate by hurting himself and jumping from a building became, in the story, nothing but desperate harassment of Si Min.
His conscious mind struggled and screamed in an endless darkness, unnoticed by anyone. They even mocked him for having no self-respect.
Until one rainy day, a black umbrella appeared over his head.
The man beneath it was pale and frail, with blood-red lips pressed together. He offered Gu Xingnan a white handkerchief.
"Does it hurt?"
"You two aren't meant to be. Stop tormenting yourself."
The man's icy fingertips drew near, and Gu Xingnan's burned fingers trembled.
Later, he shamelessly took advantage of Si Yanbei's compassion.
Lowering his dark, predatory eyes, he begged Si Yanbei again and again to gently touch the scars on his wrists and back, pleading for him to care for him a little more.
Gu Xingnan rose to success, while Si Min turned over a new leaf.
Si Min came with a bowl of soup, hoping to get back together, but accidentally stumbled upon two intimate figures.
His former fiance was holding his sickly older brother and kissing him. His elder brother, usually as cold and aloof as frost and snow, had flushed cheeks as he tenderly caressed the man's face with a look of heartache.
Reader Advisory:
Powerful, influential sickly beauty bottom * ruthless, vicious wolf-dog top
Both are pure in body and heart; younger top
The bottom is extremely frail, but can't die
Theme: Powerful, influential sickly beauty bottom * ruthless, vicious wolf-dog top